Thursday, November 15, 2012

Ebola continues to spread in Uganda

A month ago, Uganda
declared itself free of their latest Ebola outbreak. Since then, three people
have died of Ebola virus. Two of the three were from the same family. All of
these new fatalities occurred near the capital of Kampala.

The first case involved a driver of a Boda Boda - motorcycle taxis
common in Uganda - who died on Oct. 25 while the second victim, a
25-year old woman who nursed the driver, died on Nov. 10. Lab tests have
not yet been completed on the third case.

Ebola and Marbug are both highly infectious, spread mostly through contact with body fluids, and have high case fatalities.

Symptoms include bleeding, diarrhoea and vomiting and while there is
no cure for both diseases, some patients survive through treatment of
symptoms.

A total of 16 people died from the last Ebola outbreak and the frequency of infections has been rising in recent years.

Uganda has managed to avoid a repeat of its worst episode of Ebola,
in 2000, when 425 people were infected and more than half died.